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A third of measures in Government climate action plan to cut emissions not completed in 2023

Coalition plan commits to halving Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero no later than 2050

Minister Simon Coveney: got Cabinet approval for draft legislation that would allow companies to hold general meetings via hybrid or virtual meetings. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

Cormac McQuinn
Tue Mar 5 2024 - 21:39

A third of the measures in the Government’s climate action plan for 2023 were not completed, according to the latest update on efforts to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions.

The Cabinet agreed to publish the fourth progress report for the plan which shows an implementation rate of 65 per cent with 35 per cent of actions not yet completed. In total some 188 of 290 actions were completed in 2023.

“High impact” measures completed in the last quarter of the year included accelerating the delivery of rural public transport services and providing what has been described as a “record budget allocation for Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) retrofit schemes”.

A Government spokesman said: “The report emphasises the need to focus more on project management and the need to focus on all sectors in the year ahead in order to meet the EU commitments [on reducing carbon emissions].”

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The programme for government commits to halving Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero no later than 2050.

Asked about the completion rate for measures in the action plan, a Green Party spokesman said there were “a number of smaller steps that weren’t completed and issues of bureaucratic delays in the system”.

He said that overall “the trajectory emissions is very, very positive”, that they were down 1.9 per cent in 2022 and it looks like the reduction for 2023 “could be between 4 and 5 per cent”, though official statistics have not yet been finalised.

Separately, Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney got Cabinet approval for draft legislation that would allow companies to hold general meetings via hybrid or virtual meetings.

The general scheme – or outline – of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill 2024 also extends powers to the Corporate Enforcement Authority as a body with the statutory remit to investigate economic crime or corruption.

Another draft law brought to Cabinet by Mr Coveney, the general scheme of the Employment (Restriction of Certain Mandatory Retirement Ages) Bill 2023, is to go to the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise for pre-legislative scrutiny.

This is aimed at ensuring that a company which has set a mandatory retirement age below the State pension age cannot enforce this without the consent of the employee.

Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin got approval to formally nominate Defence Forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Seán Clancy as a candidate for election to the position of chair of the European Union Military Committee (EUMC).

The EUMC is a forum for military consultation and co-operation between the EU member states in the areas of conflict prevention and crisis management.

It is currently chaired by a senior military figure from Austria, another neutral country. The chair of the EUMC is selected by secret vote by the chiefs of defence of the EU member states. The vote will take place on May 15th, and appointment will take effect for three years from May 2025.

If elected Lieut Gen Clancy will be in the chair of the EUMC during the period that Ireland will hold the presidency of the EU Council, the second half of 2026. He would be joined by eight to 10 Defence Forces members as support staff.

Lieut Gen Clancy would relinquish his current role as chief of staff of the Defence Forces before taking up the EU role.

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn

Cormac McQuinn is a Political Correspondent at The Irish Times

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